Ghost Planes of Longdendale

Of all the modern-day phantoms to haunt the Longdendale Valley, perhaps the most well-known are the Phantom Bombers of the High Peak.

The moortops are scattered with the fatal wreckages of dozens of World War II aircraft and reports of 'phantom' planes flying low over the valley are frequent. The most recent sighting was in March 1997, when Maria France and a companion had ventured up onto the moors at about 10pm to view the Hale-Bopp comet in the clear night sky. What they saw instead was a low flying plane. It was also seen by a farmer who was close by and he instinctively ducked, so convinced was he of the actuality of what he was seeing.

A short time after these sightings, a local couple heard the sound of a crash and saw an orange glow light up the sky. For fifteen hours, hundreds of emergency service personnel, tracker dogs and two helicopters searched the moorland for the stricken craft. No trace was ever found and there were never any reports of a missing aircraft.

Of course it must be noted that the area is used for military purposes, and it is highly probable that many of the sightings of 'ghost planes' can be attributed to low-flying aircraft dipping out of sight along the Valley. Indeed it has been confirmed that military manoeuvres were taking place in the area at the time of the sighting described above.

Members of the local fire brigade have also spoken of watching planes flying over the moorland that looked sure to be on a crash course only for them to dip below a hillside and reappear again. There are many reports of moorland heather being set alight by very low-flying planes. Might it be possible that some 'phantom crashes' are actually caused by circumstances similar to these?

Yes, it is possible, but it is also possible that there are many things in the "physical" world that cannot be explained away by so-called "natural" occurences... It is also possible that in some way, the very land and air of the heather and the moors retain the residual images of the battle for the skies of Britain... a battle that cost the lives of thousands...

There have been a few programmes that have featured this very phenomenon (Strange But True, Origin Unknown etc) and the location is not limited to just the beautiful Longdendale Valley, but has been reported far and wide.